The beleaguered Colorado Ballet’s season-opening production of “The Sleeping Beauty” was its debut performance at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

And while ballet officials noted that ticket sales set a fall-production record, show-by-show attendance numbers indicate Denver’s grand new arts venue may present challenges for the company.

This first regular production by a performing arts group at the ballyhooed new venue failed to achieve even one sellout, and more than half of the shows were less than half-full.

Of the 22 performances of “The Sleeping Beauty” mounted between Sept. 22 and Oct. 16 at the 2,300-seat opera house, 12 shows were less than half-full, according to attendance numbers compiled by Denver’s Division of Theatres and Arenas. The ballet’s best attendance for “The Sleeping Beauty,” about 2,000, happened during two performances when the company offered deeply discounted tickets for schoolchildren. The worst attendance was a Wednesday matinee show with an audience of 260.

Lisa Snider, the Colorado Ballet’s interim executive director, said the company is pleased with the overall number of tickets sold because it still topped sales for previous fall productions at the Buell Theatre or the old Auditorium Theatre.

“It’s the largest fall opening we’ve ever had,” Snider said of the 23,095 seats sold for the entire run of “The Sleeping Beauty.” The next-highest fall attendance record was the 2001-02 production of “Dracula,” which sold 21,000 seats for 35 performances, he said.

“What I’m looking at is growing the numbers, which is occurring,” she said. Snider added that there are only about 1,500 opera house seats that offer optimal ballet viewing. “Seeing the ballet from the balcony would not be a good idea.”

The ballet has been beset by financial and administrative strife in the past year, including the recent dismissal of longtime artistic director Martin Fredmann.

Snider said the numbers have little impact on the ballet’s debt repayment plan, which includes covering $259,000 in venue rental fees from the city for two productions from last season. The ballet has devised a $10,000-a-week repayment plan for that debt. City officials say the company is on schedule with its payments.

“The ballet seems happy with the numbers, so I’m going to follow their lead,” Jack Finlaw, director of Denver’s Division of Theatres and Arenas, said Friday. “I continue to be cautiously optimistic about the ballet.”

Snider conceded that although this season’s performances are set, “The Sleeping Beauty” attendance numbers may prompt the company to reevaluate the number of shows it stages at the opera house next year. It’s also possible the ballet will discontinue Sunday-night shows and midweek matinees.

Fredmann, who only recently reached an agreement with the Colorado Ballet that will allow the company to use his choreography for the upcoming production of “The Nutcracker,” said cutting back performances could be the company’s only viable option if it wants to perform for fuller houses.

“I’ve been thinking about Denver and its need for a ballet company,” said Fredmann, who was fired earlier this month after 19 years with the company.

“I think it doesn’t have a huge need,” he said. “There just is not the public for dance that is going to fill a house night after night after night.”

The sets are minimal, not much more than a free-standing doorway and some hand-held props. Instead, video artist Chris Bagley is making projections that will give viewers a surreal sense that they are entering different rooms of the castle where the piece is set.